


Right back at you

by Beleriandings



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, post-Eleventh Hour arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 06:44:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20110855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: After Refuge, Magnus shows Carey the Chance Lance.





	Right back at you

**Author's Note:**

> This story was part of my 1000 follower tumblr fic requests, that I forgot to upload here at the time (oops!) So here is is belatedly. This one was for @coldwind-shiningstars, who requested "Magnus and Carey Best Friends Squad, trademark sign", an excellent prompt if ever I saw one.

“Hey, you gonna let me play with the cool new toy, or what?”

Magnus stopped swinging the Chance Lance in a circle, turning to Carey approaching him across the dusty floor of the training ground. He grinned, trying for a friendly punch to the arm, which Carey - predictably - dodged by half a mile. “It’s bigger than you are!”

“Just try me.”

“….Steal it from me first?”

Carey laughed, balling her hands into fists and flaring out the frill around her neck a little. “Guess you could always use the practice. Watch and learn, big guy.”

As he braced himself, dropping into a defensive position with his feet squarely planted in the packed dirt, she came running, making an uncharacteristically direct leap; he had been expecting a dodge at the last moment, some kind of trick or feint. But instead, yelling happily, she hurled herself right at his face, tail wrapping around his torso as her fingers grabbed at the lance he was trying to hold out of her reach.

The unexpected force nearly knocked him back, but he caught his balance, laughing breathlessly. “I thought you were gonna demonstrate sneaky sneaking again?” Magnus was just about holding the Chance Lance out of her reach, but it was a close thing, what with her clawed feet clambering up his leather breastplate, climbing up and nearly overbalancing him again.

“Today’s lesson is you gotta do what they least expect” said Carey, yelling with triumph as she finally managed to make it over Magnus’ shoulder, curling herself around the clock hand; it really was bigger than her whole body, tail included. Now she was clinging doggedly to it, slapping at his head with the tip of her tail to try to make him drop it. “Anyway, that? That’s what you do, all the time. If you think it’s dumb, that’s on you.”

“Ooh. Teacher learning from the pupil, huh?”

She spared a moment to flick his ear. “Don’t flatter yourself. You may have graduated, but you’ve still got a bunch to learn.”

“That’s-” Magnus let out a choked sound, erupting into giggles. “Hey, no tickling! That’s against the rogue rules!”

Carey threw back her head and cackled. “There _are_ no rogue rules. That’s sorta the point.”

Magnus grinned. “…No rules, huh?”

And with that, he threw the Chance Lance, dragonborn rogue best friend still attached, at the straw target on the other side of the training yard. He heard Carey shriek as she sailed across the space, neck-frill drawn back with the speed. A moment later, the lance struck the target, right in the middle. Carey, to her credit, was still clinging on for dear life, looking rather frazzled.

Until, of course, a moment later; Magnus grinned, snapping his fingers and recalling the lance. Not expecting this, Carey lost her grip and toppled to the ground in an unceremonious heap, as Magnus caught the lance neatly again, bounding over to help her up.

“Oh, _fuck_ yeah, it can do that?” Carey bounced up excitedly. “That’s….holy shit, Magnus. That’s the coolest!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty neat” said Magnus, modestly. “A goddess gave it to me, but it wasn’t like, a big deal.”

Carey’s eyes went wide. “Wait, really? Like an actual real life goddess?”

“Uh huh! She gave Taako and Merle some dumb presents too, but mine was the best. Also we….kinda swore service to her? I guess? It’s fine though. Her name’s Istus. Goddess of fate, knits a real pretty scarf. She’s got kinda…mom vibes? She’s pretty chill, you’d like her.”

“Huh” said Carey, looking wonderingly at the Chance Lance. “Gotta say, you kinda buried the lead there, Mango. I thought you just found a cool new weapon on the side of the road somewhere.” She dusted off her shirt, looking at him differently suddenly. “What else did you guys do in Refuge then? Avi mentioned something about like…a time bubble? A big worm? But I never got a chance to ask. And I guess there weren’t any asses for us regulators to kick, so I never heard it from the Director, either.”

Magnus froze, looking down at Carey. Suddenly, all he could think of was the scroll, handed to him by the red robe; a sketch of his own face, pouring jarring, discordant static into his brain every time he tried to think about it. Himself, in a red robe.

_No asses to kick_, she said. He had come close, back then, and he knew it. Magnus had been so close to taking the Chalice, and every day since he had wondered whether he had made the right decision.

“…Magnus? _Magnus_!”

He blinked, several times. “Huh?” He tightened his grip on the Chance Lance, belatedly realising it was slipping from his grasp.

“…You okay?”

“…Yeah” he said, forcing the memory of the vision he had seen back into the same mental back-room store cupboard where he was trying his best to keep any and all thoughts of a cardboard tube of blueprints given to him by a spectral hand. _Distraction_; that was why he had come out here to practice with the Chance Lance to start with, and Carey’s presence had made him forget for longer this time than he had, in the two weeks since it had happened.

“Yeah” he said. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Carey patted him on the arm. She didn’t look entirely convinced, but just enough to let it drop for now. “Right” she said. “Then, how about a rematch?”


End file.
